Entertainment Software Rating Board

Type	Non-profit, self-regulatory
Industry	Organization and rating system
Predecessor(s)	3DO Rating System Recreational Software Advisory Council Videogame Rating Council
Founded	1994[1] in Canada and United States
Headquarters	New York, NY, USA
Area served	Canada United States Mexico
Key people	Patricia Vance (President)
Website	www.esrb.org

The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) is a self-regulatory organization that assigns age and content ratings, enforces industry-adopted advertising guidelines, and ensures responsible online privacy principles for computer and video games in Canada, Mexico and the United States.^[2] The ESRB was established in 1994 by the Entertainment Software Association (formerly Interactive Digital Software Association), in response to criticism of violent content found in video games such as Night Trap, Mortal Kombat, Lethal Enforcers, Doom, and other controversial video games portraying overly violent or intense sexual situations. The board assigns ratings to games based on their content, using judgment similar to the motion picture rating systems used in many countries. In addition, content descriptors explain specific types of content present in games. The ratings are intended to aid consumers in determining a game's content and suitability. A game's rating is generally displayed on its box, in its media, in advertisements, and on the game's website.^[1] By late 2009, it had assigned nearly 19,130 ratings to titles submitted by more than 350 publishers.

Although the rating system is nominally voluntary, nearly all video games are submitted for rating. Many retail stores prohibit the sale of unrated video games, and major console manufacturers will not license games for their systems unless they carry ESRB ratings.

FOODVideo games' progression into the 16-bit era brought dramatic increases in graphics and sound capabilities. Blood and gore, in particular, could be portrayed much more clearly than in 8-bit games. Whereas blood in an 8-bit game could look blocky and pixelated, in a 16-bit game, it can be an easily identified fluid graphic. The release of games such as Mortal Kombat, Doom, Night Trap, and Lethal Enforcers resulted in controversy due to violent and otherwise objectionable content. In the United States Senate, Democratic Senators Joe Lieberman and Herb Kohl, of Connecticut and Wisconsin, respectively, led hearings on video game violence and the corruption of society in the early 1990s. Their hearings charged the entertainment software industry with the creation of a working rating system within a year, threatening federal creation of a system if they failed to do so.

Around this time, the Videogame Rating Council (VRC) was formed by Sega, largely to rate its own games. In 1993, the Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA) was formed, and the 3DO Company formed their own rating system, the 3DO Rating System, for games released on the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer. In 1994, the Recreational Software Advisory Council (RSAC) was formed by the Software Publishers Association.^[3] On July 29, 1994 the proposal from the IDSA for a rating system, the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) was presented to, and approved by, Congress^[4] In September 1994, the ESRB was established, becoming the de facto rating system for American video games.^[5] Initially, many companies who produced computer games, such as LucasArts, Sierra On-Line, and 3D Realms continued to follow the RSAC system, but eventually, all companies agreed to follow the ESRB ratings.

The rating system initially consisted of five different ratings: Early Childhood, Kids to Adults, Teen, Mature, and Adults Only. Shortly thereafter, "Informational" and "Edutainment" descriptors were added. In 1996, the rating icons were altered, adding the "Content Rated by ESRB" text. On January 1, 1998, the Kids to Adults rating was replaced with Everyone. Later that year, the Entertainment Software Rating Board Interactive (ESRBi) was formed, which rated web sites and online games. In late 1999, in order to make the rating symbols more legible, the pixelated rating icons were replaced with black and white ones. Beginning in early 2001, several content descriptors were retired and replaced. Content descriptors with "Animated" or "Realistic" distinctions in them had those portions removed. The "Skills" descriptors used for the Early Childhood rating were removed as well. A short time later, the Gaming descriptor was changed to Gambling, which itself was split into Real and Simulated Gambling in the following years.^[6]

In mid 2003, the ESRBi was closed down. On June 26, 2003, content descriptors were made larger and more legible, and newer, more thorough descriptors for violence (Cartoon, Fantasy, Intense) were added as well as a descriptor for Mature Humor. Also, the Mature and Adults Only icons had 17+ and 18+ added to their title band in order to clearly signify the age appropriateness. On March 2, 2005, after conferring with academicians and child development experts, the Everyone 10+ rating was introduced.^[7] Raters were initially hired on a part-time basis, but as of April 2007, the ESRB employs raters full-time.^[8]

Rating process[link]

To obtain a rating for a game, a publisher sends the ESRB videotaped footage of the most graphic and extreme content found in the game. The publisher also fills out a questionnaire describing the game's content and pays a fee based on the game's development cost. Games developed under 250,000 United States dollars require an 800 dollar fee; those with development costs above $250,000 require a fee of $4,000.^[9]

For each game, the ESRB employs three trained raters who working independently, watching the footage sent in by publishers and recommending a rating. If raters disagree, a majority of them will determine a rating. After the rating is agreed upon, other ESRB personnel review the footage and all materials to ensure accuracy of the rating, and a certificate is sent to the publisher. This decision is not final. A publisher may subsequently edit the game and resubmit the footage and questionnaire in order to achieve a lower rating, or appeal the rating to a committee made up of entertainment software industry representatives. If a publisher chooses to do so, the process begins anew.

When the game is ready for release, the publisher sends copies of the final version of the game to the ESRB. The ESRB reviews the game's packaging, and a random number of games they receive are play tested for more thorough review. Penalties apply to publishers who misrepresent the content of their games.

The identities of the ESRB raters are kept confidential and selected randomly from a pool of full-time ESRB employees who live in the New York City area. According to an ESRB introductory brochure from 1994, "The raters represent a wide range of backgrounds, races, and ages and have no ties to the interactive entertainment industry. Raters include retired school principals, parents, professionals, and other individuals from all walks of life." Raters are supposed to review games as if they were a customer receiving their first glance at the game.^[10]

Ratings[link]

The symbols ESRB uses are stylized alphabetical letters meant to indicate the game's suitability.

Unrestricted ratings[link]

Abbreviation	Rating	Active since	Description	Recommended for
	Early Childhood (EC)	1994	Games with this rating contain no material that adults would find inappropriate. The content is minimal in impact.[11] Games that fall under this rating are specifically intended for young children and are usually educational.	3 and over
	Everyone (E)	1998	Games in this category may contain mild cartoon or fantasy violence. The content is mild in impact. This rating replaced the older K-A in late 1997.	6 and over
	Everyone 10+ (E10+)	Late 2004	These games contain content that may be considered inappropriate for children under 10 years of age. The content is moderate in impact. Titles in this category may contain minimal cartoon or fantasy violence, language, animated blood, and/or minimal suggestive themes. The ESRB distributed this rating on October 1, 2004; the first game to receive the rating was Donkey Kong Jungle Beat.	10 and over
	Teen (T)	1994	These games contain content that may be inappropriate for children under 13 years of age. The content is moderate to fairly strong in impact. However, people under 13 may buy them without parental approval. Titles in this category may contain more violence, suggestive themes, crude humor, mild or no blood, simulated gambling, and/or frequent use of vulgar language.	13 and over

Restricted ratings[link]

Abbreviation	Rating	Active since	Description	Age Restricted
	Mature (M)	1994	Games with this rating contain content that is considered inappropriate for people under 17 years of age. The content is strong or intense in impact. Titles in this category may contain more blood and gore than the Teen rating would accommodate, plus sexual themes or content (which are often censored) and vulgar language.[11] Most retailers stock games with this rating, but have policies not to sell them to people under 17 without parental approval.	17 and over
	Adults Only (AO)	1994	Games in this category contain content that is inappropriate for people under 18 years of age, and cannot be bought by anyone below that age. These may include adult video games that show sex and graphic nudity, or more violence than the M rating, blood, and gore. As of 2012[update], there have been twenty-one products that have received and kept the rating.The content is extreme in impact. The AO rating is the subject of ongoing controversy due to the extreme restrictions it places on game sales. Games from major publishers that receive an AO rating are often "toned down" in order to gain the lesser rating of M. Companies like Microsoft,[12][dead link] Sony, and Nintendo[13] all have policies against allowing AO rated games to be licensed on their consoles. Additionally, most major retailers, even those who carry M-rated games, do not sell AO-rated titles in their stores or through their websites. Consequently, AO-rated games are restricted to the PC and Mac, and sold in limited fashion.	18 and over

Other ratings[link]

Abbreviation	Rating	Active since	Description
	Rating Pending (RP)	1994	This symbol is exclusively used in advertising and marketing materials. It indicates a product which has been submitted to the ESRB and is awaiting final rating. However, once a game is rated, all advertising for a game must contain its official ESRB rating. Depending on their content, some games supplement their RP rating with the disclaimer, "May contain content inappropriate for children."

Former ratings[link]

Abbreviation	Rating	Active	Description	Recommended for
	Kids to Adults (K-A)	1994–1997	This category indicated titles with appeal to people of many ages and tastes. Titles in this category may contain minimal violence, some comic mischief (i.e. slapstick and gross-out comedy), or some crude language. This rating was replaced in 1997 by the E rating; subsequently, all games with a K-A rating are considered to be E-rated.	6 and over

Content descriptors[link]

In addition to the letter-based rankings above, official ESRB ratings for games include an appropriate amount of the following 30 designations of potentially objectionable content:

Former content descriptors[link]

Controversy[link]

Overrating[link]

The ESRB has been noted for frequently overrating video games, giving a game a rating of as much as two grades higher or more than the rating given by the video game rating organization in its country of origin. For example, the games God Hand, Metal Gear Solid: Digital Graphic Novel, Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3, Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 and Samurai Shodown: Sen were all rated B by the CERO, which would technically give them T (13+) ratings in North America. However, they were all rated M (17+ - CERO D rating) by the ESRB, a difference of two grades. A more prominent example is Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne, which was rated A (all ages) by CERO but M (17+) by the ESRB, a difference of three grades.

Violence and the AO rating[link]

The ESRB has often been accused of not rating games harshly enough for violence and other related themes. Games such as Harvester, Manhunt, Rise of the Triad, Mortal Kombat, and Soldier of Fortune have shown gruesome violence, yet only received an M rating. Many critics have claimed that these games deserve the AO rating^[14] and were given the M for commercial reasons.^[15] Rise of the Triad in particular, received the highest violence descriptor: "Wanton and gratuitous violence" from the Recreational Software Advisory Council, which was mitigated by its M rating by the ESRB. The Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Ontario, their respective provincial governments classified Soldier of Fortune and Manhunt as films, and gave them "Restricted" ratings, limiting their sale to adults.^[16]

The ESRB has only given out the AO rating for violence alone twice: first for Thrill Kill (which was canceled after the developer was bought by Electronic Arts), and then for Manhunt 2.^[17] The Punisher^[18] was never officially given the AO rating, as it toned down its violent content (by placing the offending scenes in black and white) to receive an M rating. Manhunt 2 was edited before release in order to qualify for an M, though an uncut PC version has since been released with an AO rating. Of particular concern to the ESRB was a scene depicting castration, which was removed entirely from the M-rated console versions of the game. Thrill Kill received an AO rating with content descriptors for Animated Violence and Animated Blood and Gore, but was never released after the original publisher, Virgin Entertainment, was purchased by Electronic Arts.^[19]

GameSpy has suggested that Grand Theft Auto III (their 2001 Game of the Year) received such treatment from the ESRB, saying "Counter-Strike is merely Cowboys and Indians writ large. When you get right down to it, deathmatches are just elaborate games of Tag. GTA 3 is a Thug Simulator... [GTA 3 is] absolutely reprehensible. This is a game that rewards you for causing mayhem. This is a game that is about causing mayhem. It's a game that rewards you for killing innocent people by the dozen."^[20]

Some critics have claimed that the ESRB only rates games AO for sexual content, regardless of the amount of violence. Twenty-three products have been given the AO rating without revision for a different rating. One game was rated AO for unsimulated online gambling. Two were given for violence, as aforementioned. The remaining 20 AO games were given rated thus for sexual content or nudity.

Hidden content[link]

In 2005, members of the mod community discovered that the PC version of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas could be modified to unlock an incomplete sex minigame known as "Hot Coffee", which Rockstar North had decided to leave out of the final game. The discovery of the minigame caused California State Assemblyman Leland Yee to rebuke both Rockstar and the ESRB, arguing that the ESRB was not doing its job properly. US Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Joe Lieberman also expressed their disapproval. Rockstar initially claimed that the minigame was created by the mod community and was not a part of the original game. This was disproven when it was discovered that a third-party cheat device could be used to unlock the "Hot Coffee" scenes in console versions of the game.^[21] The ESRB responded to the controversy by re-evaluating the game and changing its rating from M to AO, setting a precedent that games can be re-rated based on external factors such as third-party cheat devices. Although this made Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas the best selling game to receive an AO rating, Rockstar soon released a patch that disabled the modification on PC versions and re-released the game as Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Second Edition. The new release disabled all access to the "Hot Coffee" mini-game and was given the game's original M rating by the ESRB as a result.

In 2006, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion had its rating changed from T to M due to "more detailed depictions of blood and gore than were considered in the original rating, as well as a mod that, if accessed through a third-party modification to the PC version of the game, allows the user to play with topless versions of female characters." The game's publisher decided not to re-release the game to remove the hidden texture, stating that it believed the original rating was the most accurate assessment of what parents should expect from the game.^[22][23][24]

Rockstar Games' Manhunt 2 was postponed for three months in the United States and several other countries due to its initial AO rating from the ESRB. Numerous edits brought the rating down to M. Less than a week after the release, it was discovered that the PS2 and PSP versions of the game could be modified to erase the patches that censored the violent content. Rockstar Games has since claimed that even with these modifications, many of the scenes were toned down from the original version submitted to the ESRB for rating. As a result, the ESRB chose not to change the game's rating from M. Ultimately, an AO-rated PC version was released by Rockstar as a download exclusive. Similarly, The Punisher was hacked into to allow uncensored kills, and the PC version had patches to remove the filters and intensify the violence.

News leaks[link]

The ESRB typically posts rating information for new titles on its website 30 days after the rating process is complete. This can cause a game's existence to become public information before its official announcement. As a result, the ESRB implemented a process by which publishers with concerns about this practice can request that information about the game not be posted to the ESRB's website until a specific date.^[25]

Blocking content[link]

On March 15, 2006, the video game software industry made an agreement with the ESRB, allowing the ESRB to restrict video game advertising "to consumers for whom the product is not rated as appropriate."^[26] As a result, online retailers such as Steam, Xbox Live Marketplace, PlayStation Network, and the Wii Shop Channel ban minors from downloading game demos or trailers for games rated Mature or Rating Pending.^[27]

See also[link]

• ACB, the Australian media rating system
• CERO, the Japanese computer and video game rating system
• GRB, the South Korean computer and video game rating system
• PEGI, the European computer and video game rating system
• Censorship in the United States
• Federal Communications Commission
• Motion Picture Association of America film rating system
• Television content rating systems
• TV Parental Guidelines (US television rating system)
• Video game controversy

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website - ESRB.org